Word clouds can be cool for kids. They open their eyes to new terms, ideas and ways to think. I have been using wordle.net in my room to make word clouds at the end of each unit for over a year. I ask students to list five words (in a google doc form) that they would have to explain to a person on the street if they were going to explain what they had learned. The images create lively discussions, heated debate, and reflection on what they had learned. Wordle can even be used for an evaluation tool. The real great part of wordle.net, well two great things: it’s free and fast (one minute or less to make a word cloud) and it will wordle text that is copied in for any source. What a great way to pull out main ideas from text as a pre-reading activity for your classroom.
The examples below are student created with about 110 kids responding. The bigger the word the more often it was cited as an important idea, concept or term. The smaller the less frequently it came up…main ideas, sub-ideas. Great stuff for an engaging classroom. Give it a try and let me know what you think and how you used it in your class.
The examples below are student created with about 110 kids responding. The bigger the word the more often it was cited as an important idea, concept or term. The smaller the less frequently it came up…main ideas, sub-ideas. Great stuff for an engaging classroom. Give it a try and let me know what you think and how you used it in your class.
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